Friday, October 13, 2006

Wiixperience

10/12/06 Thur morning - I get an email from EB/Gamestop that Wii pre-orders happen tomorrow. First come, first served, same as PS3. Quantities extremely limited. Message boards are already buzzing over how many each store will get. Some stores as little as 8 units, others as much as 32.

Thur afternoon – I momentarily forget about things since work is very busy right now. I have to get a lot done if I’m going to be late to work tomorrow.

Thur night – I finally get around to calling the three closest EBs near my house. Since the system gets released Sun, these are way closer than the ones near my office. The first two stores were getting 32. The third didn’t want to give exact numbers. Jerk.

10/13/06Fri morning 7:45AM – I decide I can’t bring myself to line up longer than an hour before 10AM, which is when the stores open. I do a quick scan of some boards and see that most places had lots of people lined up already. I get a little nervous. I quickly decide that I can wait 1 hour and a half then. Even if I rush out the door I couldn’t get out any earlier.

Fri 8:50AM – I reach Gamestop and there are at least 25 people in line. This location has 32. If any of these dudes are saving places for their buddies, I’m screwed. Without getting out of the car, I decide to go to the nearest EB.

Fri 8:55AM – Ahhhh sweet, sweet success! Only five people in line. This store has at least 30, so it’s all good. Over the next 15 minutes, four more people arrive and we’re all chatting and having a good time. Everyone is here to buy the system for themselves, no eBayers.

Fri 9:15AM – Tons more people start arriving so we form a proper line.

Fri 9:45AM - There has to be over 20 people. I can’t really tell from where I am.

Fri 9:55AM – The doors are open just a tad early. As the first couple people are waiting near the register, the excitement is really making everyone giddy. The amount of jokes increases. Mind you the jokes aren't very good, they are made funnier only because everyone is in a good mood. Material like "thank god Happy Feet is a launch title!" or "where is Sudoku Master for Wii?!". You get the picture.

A warm glow surrounds people. I can see other people staring in from the outside. The farthest I can see from inside the store I guess is customer #25. He looks a little nervous. It's almost a desperate look. I wonder if he knows there are at least 30 available (minus 2 each store is allowed to set aside for employees).

Fri 10:10AM – My Wii is pre-ordered! I got an extra Wii remote, nunchuck, classic controller, and Zelda. I was really debating with myself whether to get the classic controller since I can just use my Gamecube controllers, but it’s only $20 and one of the launch games I want is Metal Slug.

At this point, I’m pretty sure I’ll get Metal Slug Anthology, Super Monkeyball, and Excite Truck. Still on the fence about Red Steel and Rayman. I should probably space out the game purchases anyway. It’s not like I can play ten games at once. Especially since there are 360, DS, PS2, and PSP games I want around the same time.

There are supposed to be 1 million Wiis available at launch and 3 million more by Christmas. I’m sure it won’t be extremely hard to get, but you never know. 4 million is more than enough for the initial batch of early gamer adopters. Then again, if the general public catch the Wii fever in the same manner they’ve fallen YET AGAIN for Tickle Me Elmo Super duper version this holiday, well, 4 million isn’t even close to enough.

This is the one console I’ve been wanting super bad, so I feel very at ease now that one is reserved.